Hera Shakil
Age: 22
“I joined Teach for India (TFI) when I was 20-years-old right after I completed my graduation. I was sent to south Bangalore to teach slum children in a dilapidated school for an assignment. It just clicked; the first class was a turning point in my life and I thought I could take this up professionally for a while. I recently completed a year at TFI. When I’d applied for the fellowship, there was a lot of pent up frustration in me. I was this idealistic 20-year-old who thought that education was the answer to everything. I wanted to make quality education accessible to underprivileged children and I thought that TFI served as a perfect platform for that. Frankly, the fellowship’s quite tough. There are times when I start my day at the school by breaking up fights between students, or talking to a father who refuses to send his daughter to school. Sometimes I walk in to the classroom to see that the blackboard’s been broken, and the fans have been smashed. But, within five minutes of entering the classroom, things start getting better. One of the students will give some wisecrack answer, or one of them will take ownership of conducting the morning meeting, or the class goes absolutely seamlessly and you can see happy faces of all the kids because they learnt something new. Two of my students are dyslexic, it makes me immensely happy when I see them solving complex maths questions. There are also days when I’m unwell and these kids share their small portions of food with me and feed me with their own hands. They also keep tabs on whether I took my medicines on time. So, there a million things that go right and wrong almost everyday. But, no matter what, these kids show up each day and are hungry to learn new things. Also, the idea that I need to be someone these children can look up to, pushes me to be a better person. This one time, I was explaining the meaning of ‘idol’ to the class. One of my students, called Anshika, raised her hand and said ‘Like you are my idol’.”
– As told to Tania Goklany.
Hera Shakil – you are my idol. I am 29years and I feel i haven’t done anything in my life as meaningful as yours. Good to have people like you around. Thankyou for sharing this!
Well done 🙂
Salute to that dedication and the drive within to keep moving with it. Little things you described are actually are so important to FEEL THE LIFE and a ‘happy perspective’ to see things. Keep spreading happiness and new learnings.
Some day I will follow your footsteps Hera! This is a noble cause. My respect & admiration for you have started “paying back” at such a young age.
Hello Hera,
Thanks for doing what you are doing, creating men & woman in the regions in our Country where there is desperate need of education. Bottoms up is the way our Country can move up quickly towards being a better Country.
Yes we need many Role Models, i guess there have been a few and far between in the last many decades, Vajpayee Ji and Abdul Kalam are a few we can count.
We need many more Heera’s (Diamonds) to get to get this lovely Country glowing.
Proud of you Hera
Thanks again
John Bosco
I am really touched by this Story. Hats of to you Hera. You rock.
After going thru the text, yes in India there are good Human beings
Keep doing , god may give you every required strength for doing so.
Helping somebody in realizing his goal gives more joy and satisfaction than achieving our own goal.
Best Regards
Rajeev
Thank you for this wonderful job you are in.
Hey hii,
I’m not here to judge, but wanna convey what I exactly felt after reading this article. I’m quite inspired with the way you are handling the situations and manage different sort of students all together in a classroom. I would like to wish you all the very best and loads of success in whatever path you are into. Truely, you stand out as an idol for many of us, who wants to do something for the society and endup doing nothing.
Hi Hera, I really appreciate your efforts on educating underprivileged Children.Hope is alive as long as India has young people like you. Congrats and All the best.
It is so heartening to read experiences like these. This is value education at its best, a much needed push for education outside classroom. Youth today are demanding of a purpose and initiatives like Teach India provide that.
My best wishes …
This is a fabulous job, i salute those peoples who are involved to teach slum children.
The determination, hard work & sacrifice of those peoples can not be accomplished.
Apart from my personal life, I also want to do same work please guide me..
Hera, you are doing really fabulous job, Keep doing, your determination and hard work will be helpful for better society .
its so refreshing & good to see such positive stories in media now a days. You deserve our compliments for the wonderful job u are doing. my best wishes for your future.
Hi,
Good to see that your dedication in making future for these talented minds who had missed the opportunity to be one of us…. God Bless you !!!
Proud of you! All the very best for your endeavor!
Really heads of Shakil!!!!God job!!!!
Many many thanks….My best wishes …
Thank you all for your support. We as Teach For India fellows are trying to bring quality education in our classrooms. Please apply for the TFI fellowship program if you think you can live up to this two year commitment. Applications are open now at http://www.teachforindia.org/
Wings to you and to all others who can think like you.
Though one “e” is missing in you name you are still shining like a true Hera :-)…
Hi Hera, you are inspirational to many like me. I also definitely follow your foot steps one day. Thanks for sharing.
A wonderful job. We are getting short of people like you around.
Hera – till we have young people like you around, my nation and this society is in safe hands. God bless!!!
Fabulous,wonderful job,truly inspiring,,,keep it up your endeavor.
Hera Shakil! Proud to have a friend like you 🙂 all the best for harward too 🙂
Excellent, I think you are beautiful person inside and out, and want to get in touch.
you inspire all of us !
India surely has got a bright future ahead, not because of those who make a glorified living for themselves but for the young and bright people like you!
In fact, the world is and will continue to be a better place to live only for people like you!
Awesome job, keep it going.